Early Criticisms Of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847 with the author’s name

given as Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights was actually written by Emily

Bronte, but she adopted a male alias as female authors rarely got

published. Her work was praised for the imagination used, but

criticised for its moral ambiguity. Wuthering Heights challenged

Victorian ideals and this shocked its first critics. The fact that

Emily Bronte felt the need to use a male alias is an indication of how

she feared the public would receive her book. Wuthering Heights may be

seen as shocking, as Bronte addresses many Victorian ideals with

criticism. She does so with unusual characters with flaws and their

amoral actions. For example, she challenges Victorian precept such as

inequality of the sexes and social class. Bronte’s novel also includes

ghosts and unexplained dreams which would have disturbed Victorian

critics. Religion is also implicitly criticised by Bronte at various

points in the novel. Bronte uses literary devices, such as

characterisation, language, motifs, and imagery to address themes and

the first critics of Wuthering Heights would have found her criticisms

scandalous.

It is debateable under which genre Wuthering Heights should fall as

the plot features many themes. It is often thought of as a gothic

horror or a romantic escapism. Once it was discovered (in 1850) that

Ellis Bell was actually female, many Victorians viewed it as gothic as

this category was associated with women. Bronte also uses dual

narration, which was practically unprecedented when she wrote

Wuthering Heights. Moreover, the fact that Nelly narrates more than

Lockwood although she is a woman, contradicts the norms of Victorian

society.

One theme that Bronte ...

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...ight; however Heathcliff is the lightning, which is destructive like

his character. Furthermore, the descriptions are also often sensual

and invoke unrestrained feelings, whether good or bad. Bronte’s use of

such description would have been found shocking, as it was not

expected of a ‘weak’ woman to portray such provocative feelings.

To conclude, the first critics of Wuthering Heights found the novel

shocking and subversive because Bronte crosses the boundaries of many

Victorian ideals. She addressed the roles of gender, equality of the

sexes, education, class, religion and love. Moreover, Bronte did so in

a revolutionary way, using techniques such as duel narration, imagery

and structure to explore the themes in the novel. Furthermore the

first critics would have been shocked purely by the characters in

Wuthering Heights and their uncivilised actions.